Everyone can calculate DOF. You can easily find the formula. You can use a dozen of apps for that. But what happens beyond DOF? It's blurred, but how much? Different sizes of sensors often evoke this question.

So I decided to write an Android app which would calculate that for me. It is called Visual DOF, and it's available free on the Play Market.

Those interested please visit the detailed guide. To ignite your interest, a few words about its features:

- It calculates DOF and hyper focal distance. No big deal.

- It gives you a visual of your future shot, how wide it will be and how blurred.

- It measures exactly the amount of blurriness of any object in your shot (including background). You will be able to estimate what will and what will not be resolved on the final image.

- It gives you a hand to solve possible moire issues.

- It has some popular sensors in the list. Among them BMD Cinema Camera and Phase One P40+ (with 1.3x crop factor).

I will appreciate you feedback and help to promote this app if it seems useable to you.

Curious about your comment that it "gives you a visual of your future shot". Does it do this using the camera in the phone? If so, how does it take into account differing focal lengths, angles of view, distances to subject, and so forth? Is there some algorithm in the app to correct for the difference between the focal length of the lens in the phone vs what's proposed to be used on the camera?

Thanks for your comment. As a starting developer, I'm hungry for feedback.

By a "visual of the future shot" I mean that there is a fixed zoom-able picture in the app (it's an image of a flat facade of an old building rich in details) that shows you 1) the size of your background in meters (see "Background width" in the attached screenshot), 2) how blurred the background will be (both visually and in terms of the minimal detail that will be resolved at the background). So, it gives you a visual idea of the background, but not the background itself.

I was thinking at first about doing this with a user's pictures from the camera / gallery. But it makes things complicated as the user must specify the actual size of the image and make sure that there is no foreground/background, but only one huge surface.

More than that, for the range of the zoom that the app provides, it's not enough to use images even from my Phase One P40+ digital back ) So the app is working with a set of unified and aligned images ranging from super wide to super tele photo. It's difficult to expect from the user to prepare the set themselves.

Got it. Thanks, Roman. I think what may make the app very useful would be to tie it to the camera live view and incorporate a DOF preview kind of utility so that people can see the impact on the image right in front of them.

Totally agree on landscape image. In the next update I plan including 3 back images: architecture, landscape and crowd of people.

Hi Roman,

That sounds useful. It would also be useful if one can enter a custom CoC, not just an unknown CoC based on a limited number of sensor types. The CoC requirement can change with different viewing distances of the output.

I just posted an update to the Visual DOF app with a toggle between meters/cm and feet/in.

Also I included a simple visual reference to the subject of the shoot which is in focus. It must help you to consider both the subject and the background, but if you don't like it, tap it to get rid of it.

One thing is I wish it would not force a portrait orientation, on my tablet, which is nice because of the 10" inc screen, and I also use it for live view, when I run the app it automatically switches the orientation to be like a phone, which is not good for my uses. I have the tablet in a holder that is a landscape orientation also on the tablet the image is smaller when rotated in the landscape orientation the image could be made larger and easier to see the differences in dof. The sliders also do not need a lot of room.

Why does it need to have full network access? Be nice if there was an ad free version.

1. The app for tablet will need some time to develop. Also since the screen on the tablet is larger, it will take larger images -- and more space for the app. Do you usually filter out large apps? How much is still ok?

2. Ads make up for my time and overhead costs. To make an ad free version, I need to make this app a paid one. Seriously, are you personally, for instance, willing to buy it?

1. I think using the full screen is fine, my main reason for having in that orientation is that is how I run the controller app it is more convenience. A larger image would be really nice and sliders do not take much room, as it is the app flips the screen and does not take up much more than half the screen.

2. I would probably pay up to $5 for the app, you could do what many apps do is to have two versions, one with ads one without. the app seemed to go out and ping the network even if it was blocked or at least that is what it seemed to do. To be fair I do understand your reasoning. this is not a major issue, just a nice to have etc.

3. it might be nice to have an option or button to automatically position the image at the hyperfocal setting for the focal length and aperture, and then you can inspect the image and decide what you really want.

2. I would probably pay up to $5 for the app, you could do what many apps do is to have two versions, one with ads one without. the app seemed to go out and ping the network even if it was blocked or at least that is what it seemed to do. To be fair I do understand your reasoning. this is not a major issue, just a nice to have etc

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I'm using an iPhone but I think that a lite (ad-supported) and a paying (without ads) versions is the best way to market an application.A price of $5 seems reasonable.

Here is an idea from another DoF thread (sorry if I "steal" this). Could it be possible to have print size and viewing distance as input parameters, and then show an approximation of how print would look like on the device screen (toggle between in focus and out of focus)? I believe most photographers might not understand how to choose CoC welll enough.